Post navigation

More details emerge in Zavala resignation at Wilson …

Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District Assistant Superintendent in charge of human resources Rob Roberts confirmed recently that the district hired an external investigator to investigate former Wilson High School football Brian Zavala due to alleged recruiting infractions.

Zavala resigned his position as head coach last week and his teaching position effective at the end of the school year. He has not publicly said why he chose to resign and has not returned several phone calls seeking comment.

As it turns out, the investigation turned up nothing after the parents of the two players involved chose not to cooperate with the external investigator and subsequently checked out of the school on Jan. 3.

“Brian Zavala told me point blank, face to face, that he denied all allegations,” Roberts said. “I have no reason not to believe him.”

Zavala was at the school for two seasons and compiled a 4-16 record. In December, potential CIF violations in terms of residency and eligibility came to the attention of Wilson principal Elena Paul, who launched an investigation into the matter. The school also self reported the allegations to CIF.

“On Dec. 15, I sat down with Mr. Zavala and I shared with him what the allegations were and he denied all allegations,” Roberts said. “We made the decision to go with the external investigator based on the fact there were inconsistencies in what was reported in the statements by the parents and students, and we have Mr. Zavala denying all allegations.”

Of the two players involved, one set of parents did not respond to the investigator’s request for an interview. The set said they’d cooperate, but did not show up for a scheduled interview.

Roberts estimated the district spent less than $500 of the school’s general fund on the external investigator and admitted that the district has used external investigators on its employees in the past for issues of conduct.

Zavala and other coaches at the school were warned by Roberts about the possibility of an outside investigation should any infractions occur as far back as last spring. Roberts had two seminars conducted about CIF rules, one at which Southern Section Assistant Commissioner Rob Wigod spoke.

With Zavala gone, former coach and athletic director Dave Merrill has been brought in as a substitute teacher for one period a day to oversee the team’s weight lifting workouts. Merrill was the athletic director and partly responsible for Zavala’s hiring, a move he takes credit for despite how things turned out.

“I thought he was going to do a great job and I still think he has a lot of potential,” Merrill said. “He was my pick and I will take total credit for pushing for him.”

Zavala’s is credibilty sketchy since this is not the first he violated CIF rules.

November 06, 2001 in print edition D-10

Willie Reyna, football coach at Pico Rivera El Rancho High, and assistant Brian Zavala will sit out their second consecutive game for violating Southern Section undue influence rules Friday when the Dons play host to Santa Fe.

The coaches contacted a prospective player at another school about their program, section officials announced last week. Even though the player never transferred to El Rancho, the contact was still considered a violation.

El Rancho Principal Julie Ellis suspended Reyna for two games and Zavala for the remainder of the season. Both sat out the Dons 34-27 victory last week over Whittier California.

Theyre both new to their jobs and they definitely exercised poor judgment, Ellis said. But theyre good coaches. We want to accept the consequences and move forward.

Aram I have some swamp land in florida to sell you too

Matlock would have knocked on the La Serna home

At least on TV an investigator would have gone to the home for an interview, not wait around to see if someone was going to show up and indite themselves

Dan

Oh Aram did you have too?
I feel another Zavala blog beatdown coming on!
Please, not another 97 post thread on the demise of Wilson football again.

Colt74

1. Allegations were made.
2. Allegations could not be substantiated.
3. Wilson principal Elena Paul calls for his resignation.

So….. 1 – 2 = 3

Why is it when I use my calculator I come up with a different answer?

bbbbb

Now that HLPUSD got rid of Flunky # 2

HLPUSD needs to oust Flunky # 1 at Los Altos

Head Coach Jim Arrellanes

This is where it starts if you want to see 1 win at LA in 2011.

GET RID OF HIM FAST/PRONTO………………………

WTF

Aram, Your interview is perfect example of what is wrong with Zavala as a head coach. Zavala you need to learn to be a MAN. You should just admit you made a mistake and ask for forgiveness. This is why you will never be a good head coach because you donot live your life based on what you preach. The truth will set you free MAN UP!..

LAWSUIT

This message is a very clear one that Roberts is sending us, LAW SUIT. Roberts should have never mentioned the Private Investigator, but being a x-Los Altos principal he wanted to take a shot at the Wilson football program.

Zavala made it very clear he wasnt going to step down, and denied all allegations. Were these blog generated allegations from upset parents made up, of course not? Multi students and parents confirmed the allegations, which is why Zavala stepped down. Now Roberts comes back to Aram and starts clarifying him comments, damage control.

Whos taking all the heat for Roberts comments, Ms. Paul? That meeting last Thursday Ms. Paul was asked by the Booster Moms From Hell why she fired Zavala. She stated she didnt he stepped down; well Roberts comments to Aram implied differently. We understand the Booster President Ms. Vega concern for her man doll Zavala, he is married she needs to let him go. Booster Moms From Hell just because a coach looks cute in his coaching outfit doesnt mean he can coach. Ms. Paul you have a lot more support out there than you think within the football program. One piece of advice, keep the booster moms off the hiring committee.

Lets compare

Lets compare said:

Hmmm bbbbb,

lets try this again….

lets compare, try this on for size, jim arrellanes a born loser huh, so getting a full ride scholarship to fresno state and graduating and actually in the seattle seahawks camp for a minute, and playing a few years in the world league overseas, and actually winning the championship while being named the MVP, that is what you call a loser?
Now compare those credentials with yours, ready, go…
ill be waiting…
If you want to label born losers, try taking the route LA GUY did below, the only loser in this entire situation is AD Garcia, what are his credentials and experience again? The guy cant coach or lead, period…

Colt – let’s do math

Let’s see

1) School district hires P.I. to investigate players

2) Within 2 weeks 3 players decide to leave the school and are gone

3) P.I. now has no one to interview

4) then of course, no allegations can be substantiated

5) Coach Zavala is determined not guilty but resigns anyway because he really wants to – it that it?????

Wilson had to forfiet games last year (09 season) because of a player, the year before that forfieted games because of playing a star player with bad grades – what’s next???

Colt74

3) P.I. now has no one to interview

4) then of course, no allegations can be substantiated…

In the words of Johnny Cochran …..
If the glove don’t fit then the principles a twit…..

WTF

Colt74, this is not a court of law and the glove fits perfect. Just like OJ Zavala still got what was coming to him. He must be stupid to get involved a 2nd time in a CIF violations. The wilson program is a better program with out him. Hey Zavala say hello to Hoyd next!!!

bbbbb

HMMMMMM

Fresno St to be a public servant.

This sounds like a real winner.

Did you get to see the Qurterback play last year?
Bad/HORRIBLE coaching…………………………

Wilson Parent

This isn’t his second violation this is his third violation, the violation in 2001 and the violation week 1 this year are the other two. The recruiting violation was just one of many issues that was being investigated.

Perry Mason

1. WTF…..don’t take up law…
2. Hey Wilson, say hello to the bottom of the VVL next!

Wilson Parent

Perry Mason,

Parents do realize next year team will not be as good as this years team. The coaching factor should be a huge upgrade from this past season. We need a experienced coach that is going to play the best players and keep the players and parents in check. I honestly believe we have good parents and players. The issues our team had this past season was a direct reflection on the lack of leadership from Zavala. All indications are that school administration realizes this and is going to address it with the new hire.

david rivera

in all my years as a wilson fan i am in total dismay that all we won in the valle vista was 1 game.thanks alot zavala for the memories

david rivera

please wilson dont hire another workman ex coach. i have had enough of this workman crap to last me a lifetime

Middy

David Rivera. The Workman guys aren’t bad, they just need some direction and so did Zavala. Probably wasn’t ready to be a head coach. Maybe would have been a good assistant. Wilson should compete but they are far diffenent from their championship years.

reality

You guys over there will destroy any coach and his reputation in a heartbeat. Just hire a dog so you can kick it all you want.

Wilson Parent

Looking back the single biggest reason why Zavala got fired was Williams. Williams lacks the knowledge to be an OC at the varsity level. This offense had to run what he knew not what the team had been working on for the last 1 years. Williams issue was his quarterback wasnt eligible during the whole summer, so we continued to run our old offense. Two weeks before the season starts his quarterback becomes eligible so he switches the offense. This teams talent base was wasted due to Williams lack of knowledge.

I agree any head coach that takes this job better be a strong experience one or he will get eaten alive by our parents. A good example of that would be Williams, he coached at Workman for years, and the parents thought he sucked but he was still coaching. Over at Wilson they wanted this guy out by week four or five and got him out after only one season.

rumor

Rumor at Wilson is the job has been offered to Wrkman’s and La Puente’s head coach.

Wilson Parent again is Wrong

Again you dont have any of your facts right. Your so called offense that you had been working on for the last year and half. That was Williams Offense he installed it at Wilson in the beginning of the summer. The offense that your previous OC used was similar to Williams from Workmans. So Coach just added to it and changed formations and things to fit his. All your plays were Workmans old offense they have been using the last 4 years. And 3 times that got us into the playoffs. You guys looked good in summer but only cause Will came in and fixed and showed those boys how to get new offenseive concept routes. And the parents at Workman love Will hes Alumni. One of the best players Workman has ever had. Dont talk about our parents like you know us. Its easy for you to come on here and talk crap about Will when you dont even know him personally. You can tell you have no facts. Cause you never tell anything with facts you just say what you think, instead of what is fact. And i know cause i talk to Coach Will personally. So here are some real facts from Will’s mouth. He took over your offense 1st week of summer practice. Put in his system and went from there. It was coach Will’s offense that gave you parents all your false hope that your offense could be good. He made 7 look good at passing league with his route designs and play calls. He told me at your ELAC tourny he had to get out the more complex offenseive plays so they could compete. Stuff they did at Workman for years. But its like WIll always said passing league dont mean anything cause you dont get a free 4 seconds in a game with no rush to throw to recivers that know they aint gonna get hit. I know for fact we rolled you guys up last year 2 times in passing league. With Will calling plays. But guess what its a passing league so that dont mean nothing. 2nd the triple play you parents cant get over, is 1 play in the whole system. And its obvious that he called more than that play. You guys threw the ball 200 some times for almost 1700 plus yards and ran 220 or so, for about 1500 plus yards, so your offense was balanced. Your Passing stats are almost the same as your rushing stats. You averaged almost 24-28 points a game. I know you will just say that he padded those stats on the Weak teams. But hey Covina padded their stats on you and so did Pomona,Baldwin Park, San Dimas. Did that make their offense any better than Wills. No bad teams like your get scored on. Your stats Will had at Wilson are better than the stats then Workman ever had. Get over your self Wilson Parent Will is moving on so you should too. Coach Will knows more about football than you ever Will and your lack of any real statements other than hes bad coach that didnt play kid or give your kid the ball enough well that just makes you a punk parent.

Wilson Parent

Let me clarify the purpose of that statement, it was to bait Williams and Silva to respond back. To prove to all those coaches in the SGV that you guys really are on the blog. Sure enough you responded; dont even think for a second that anyone thinks that comment came from a WORKMAN parent.

IT WORKED >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bait? LOL

Wilson Parent your a idiot…lol..I played for and coached with Will..That statement tells me your a idiot..For baiting Coach WIll and SIlva..They could care less. I come on here cause your parents bash on some good guys that helped me alot. So im just backing them up. They dont blog execpet the one time they tried to fix things, they said why waste their time. Im in class bored so i figure. Why not back my coaches. Your the stupid parent with nothing to do but bait and talk crap. Wilson parent get a life. Im out!

Another thing?

What you got against Coach WIll and Silva anways? What they do to you personally?Not play your kid at QB??? LOL I mean lets keep it real! Did the fact your kid not get enough catches and yards mean hes a bad guy? Did you think he should been a guard or a center mean he was to blind to see your kids true talent? Hmm or Maybe your kids suck? And you did this so that the other coaches would see if they blogged? if Will and Silva dont read this you think other coaches read this i doubt it. YOUR A IDIOT!!! No wonder Will said he didnt talk to most of the parents with guys like you why would he. If i was the next coach and i read this I would be do i really wanna work around a guy like this parent? No that talks crap and tries to get people fired if he dont get what he wants? This is the best response ever. I could go on all night making you look stupid. But hey even I have lil time for idiots!

Wilson Parent

Who’s the idiot,

Your first blog entry,

“Dont talk about our parents like you know us.”

Your a parent.

Your second blog entry,

“I played for and coached with Will”

Coach and played for him.

So Williams has been coaching at Workman for four years and you played for him, coached with him and your a parent, now who is the idiot.

“He made 7 look good at passing league with his route designs and play calls”

If he did so well with #7 why couldn’t he make #12 look as good with his route designs and play calls.

I’m confused Williams offense schemes are so good why did we change out of them at the end of the season. Why was it that Silva was designing the new offense for next season, if Williams is so good.

You are bragging about making the playoffs in the weakest league in the SGV. The four years Williams was at WORKMAN you had a lossing record of 20-21 and your bragging about that.

For the last time..Wilson parent

Your first response. About acting like you know” our” as in “MY” parents, acting like you know them. I never said i was a parent. Again stating things without knowing your facts. And then when i give them to you , you ignore them. I played for will in 2008 and helped coach last yr. If ya want consider it a typo. Im in class on cell phone relax. You know what i meant. 2nd Hmmm.. 12 had better passing stats than 7 right? When they threw about the same amount of passes. So ya 12 did better than 7. 3rd. Silva has always helped Will with his offense since they coached JAA Warriors. So saying Silva was changing Will’s offense is another of your statements you got wrong. But if you knew Will or Silva you would have known that. And finally making the playoffs at Workman were we have maybe 950 kids and only about 60 play football with no D1 talent and i can admit that, and we still make the playoffs says one thing to me..Pretty good coaching!! What was your record like 6 and 30 somthing. LOL oh man with all that D1 talent how did you ever only loss 30 some gamges! LOL,Any other stupid questions ya got..i dont get out of school till 830..and my next class is pretty boring too..but after that i have to go i have a date!

Wilson Parent #2

Sorry, but Williams you are busted. Look back at the comment you posted under your name on the other thread, same style of writing if you call it style. We know you will never admit to it, but that is Williams.

bbbbb

Wilson Group

Just Bring in the Fresno State GURU LOSER ALTOS.

Jim Arellanes 0-20 can fix any school by playing Favorites.

All of the team at LA would like to see him MAN up and QUIT and never try to coach Football Again. He would be a great gremlin coach that’s what he showed last year.

LA if you want to win one GAME in 2011 Get rid of HEAD CLOWN or just let him orchestrate 0-30 in three straight years.

Wilson Family

The only thing I’m not sure about is it Williams or Silva. I have been told by multi parents both of them are on this blog trying to save Williams image since he is getting destoryed on these blogs. Looking back at it Williams is the reason why Zavala is where he is today.

Now this #7/#12 who is the better passer is a joke. Everyone in the SGV knows that #7 is clearly a better quarterback than #12. Rice has won multi CIF championships and now #7 is his quarterback, I think that should put closure to who was the better quarterback.

Williams and Silva stay off the blogs. By the way rumor has it that Morrison was offered the Wilson job. That could be the best option for you guys. You know that Workman is the only school that will take the two of you.

Wilson Family

bbbbb,

Not sure about that, we took a hit on the talent side. Now on the coaching side, if we still had Zavala I would have given the advantage to Los Altos. As bad as you think Arellanes is Zavala is worse. Just think about it, Zavala was taught by Arellanes what does that say about Zavala?

The only father that made positive comments about Zavala was #12’s. Now a few of the mothers thought he was a good coach also. What does that say about Zavala?

You every think you would see the day that the La Puente High Schools have better coaching staffs than the Hacienda Heights High Schools.

bbbbb

Wilson Family

This tells it all how horrible Jim Arellanes truly is.

Zavala whooped him Last year……

Your team is lucky Zavala stepped up and resigned.

Hacienda Heights hopes that J. A. realizes he does not have any coaching to win capabilities. And Steps up and quits.

Coach

bbbbb.

I can say with 100% certainty that Arellance is looking.

Realize Zavala didn’t step down by choice. He was given the option to step down or get fired. Arellanes will be given that same option if it comes to that.

Arellanes is trying to get out of LA before it comes to that.

Wilson parent??

Your still at it? After all that you still think this is Williams your pretty funny. But ya know what its like i said whats your guys beef with Coach Will? He aint even coaching their anymore and you still wanna go at him. Look if your that upset. Just say why !Im sure everyone reading would like to know what your pissed at Coach about. LOL but we know that aint gonna happen right.How bout better yet you call coach Will since you know so much bout him. You guys should have his number shouldnt you? You know more about anyone on the blogs! Lol you even know how he writes now too, maybe you should have been the P.I. so you could have found some dirt.Again your a idiot!. Like i said i back Will and Silva cause those guys were cool to me and had my back for a long time. So they may not care..but to me this is fun poking fun at a bunch of idiots!And if you guys cant figure out what im doing. This makes it even funnier! Fyi i get out of class at 630 today so make it quick! LOL

Truth

In Summary Williams and Silva don’t go on the blog. You might want to go back a couple threads they commented using their names. The Silva one was great, stating this was the first time he had ever been on the blog. That is a flat out lie, just about the whole coaching staff says he is on the blog defending this staff all day.

Now if you want to talk about talent at Workman, I would assume that you would take Williams word for that. He has stated on multi ocasions that Workman doesn’t even come close to the talent at Wilson. He states that he couldn’t run his complete offense at Workman due to the limited talent, something he did at Wilson. A matter of fact that is the reason why Morrison is looking into taking the Wilson job only after a year at Workman. Let’s make this clear your record over the last five years is sub .500 in the worse league in the valley. Even when Wilson didn’t win a single game they would have blown you out.

Zavala had asked the question to multi employees and supporters at Wilson “What do you think of Williams?” Everyone which is at least five people all stated the same thing get ride of him before he takes you down with him. According to these staff members Zavala was planning on firing Williams at the end of the season. With 1/2 his staff quiting and the investigation Zavala got fired before he could fire Williams.

This could be a good thing, now you guys have a chance to go back to JAA and test out this great offense of yours?

david rivera

oh yeah bring in another workman coach. morrison is not the answer at wilson.he wont be able to recruit 8th graders in junior highs and he doesnt know the area that well.and to top it off another workman reject. please wilson stop making the same crappy decisons you have being doing the last several years. i am so sick and tired of coahes coming here and telling us that they can change the program around. enough bullshit ok

Fan

Like any quality coach would want to come to Wilson with the parents they have there. You should go back and read your posts…You guys act and sound like Raider fans…wait…most of you guys probably are!!!

Coach

I can answer some of these questions. First off who would apply, the count was in the 20’s a couple days ago and late yesterday it hit 40. At least four or five quailty staffs.

Definitely consider that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the net the easiest thing to remember of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed whilst folks think about concerns that they plainly don’t recognise about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as smartly as outlined out the whole thing with no need side effect , folks could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you

Meta

Comments Policy

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.